SJ : Mori, the road to Kaga

[TWD]

@Jeff : I have very little knowledge of the 1580 campaign.
I know there are many many more units on the battlefields, though. So I don't know if rushing is as viable as in the SJ campaign.
The strategy proposed here is SJ specific. Maybe it is viable for other campaigns, maybe it is not. I do not know :)

[TWD]

So... here is what follows :)
I do not know yet how far how I'll take this campaign, but this post gives a much clearer idea of what the "road to Kaga" is about ! Hope you enjoy !

Winter 1530.
The Rebels invade Sanuki with 220 men to my 120. Harsh times. I choose to defend because defending the farmlands there is key !
Good news : They are two units of archers.



Peasants rebel in Tajima.

Buildings :
The new budget is 1200 kokus.
I start an Improved farmland in Bitchu and queue a superior farmland in Sanuki (600).

Trainings :
2 units of Yari Ashigaru are ordered in Mimasaka (400). A lot of samurais are still garrisoning the western front.

Troop movements :
- The emissary finally reaches Aki.
- Our rank 3 general goes back to Tajima to defend against the rebels.
- A unit of Yari Samurai reinforces Sanuki.
- Lord Mori and the Archers in Bizen reinforce Harima.
- Behind the front, 120 Ashis move from Mimasaka to Bitchu and all 3 units from Bitchu move to Bizen.




Spring 1531.
The Rebels have captured Kawachi from lord Oda. Tamba isn’t garrisoned anymore, although the revolted peasants in Tajima retreated. Odd.
There are loyalty issues in Sanuki, Bitchu and Tajima but an ashigaru unit is incoming to solve them. So the time seems favourable to move forth.

Troop movements :
- The emissary in Aki is shipped to Totomi.
- Our samurais in Bizen split : one Yari reinforces Sanuki, the other and the archer move to the front line in Harima.
- Our rank 3 general and the Yari Samurai from Tajima invade Tamba.
- Lord Mori and his troops invade Kawachi.




Summer 1531.
Tamba is conquered. Oda sent troops as well but retreated. Lord Mori, vastly outnumbered, called off his attack on Kawachi.



Tajima is down to a dreadful 56% loyalty. However, this is summer : the time to strike ! We will divide our troops to confuse the rebels. Hopefully, they will not make the right decisions and our invasion of central Japan will be successful !

Troop movements :
- Lord Mori, 2 archers and 2 samurais go invade Kawachi. This will be tough ;
- Saito, our soon to be rank 4 general, heads straight to Yamashiro, along with his samurai escort. There are no troops outside of Yamashiro’s castle… Maybe the province is empty, maybe reinforcements from Kawachi will ease the taking of the bridge ;
- Our new Ashigaru (rank 2 general) goes garrison Harima ;
- A Yari Samurai from Sanuki fakes an attack on Awaji, intending to prevent the rebels to strike Harima (that would look bad) ;
- Our emissary heads to Shinano, in search for lord Imagawa.

At this point, no alliance has been formed, yet. But Imagawa is at war with Uesugi and Takeda. He holds Shinano and has lost Suo.




Autumn 1531.
To the west, Lord Shimazu has invaded Iyo.
Otherwise, our summer operations were a complete success ! First, Harima wasn’t invaded.



Then, Yamashiro was taken without a fight. An archery dojo, a sword dojo and a Buddhist temple are there ! We will have some quality reinforcements very fast, now !
Finally, the rank 3 rebel general invaded Tamba, facilitating the (still bloody) battle for the bridge of Kawachi.



Good fortune shines upon the Mori clan :



Is that any surprise ? In a mere 5 seasons, our annual profit has risen from -300 kokus to… 2100 !

From then on, we should solve the loyalty issue, which will slow a bit the expansion. Starting castles in Harima and Tajima also becomes very pressing.
Regarding the military strategy, it is probably a better idea to start conquering the great farmable lands of Kii, Ise, Omi, Mino, etc. and then head north to Kaga !
Oda is besieged in Iga. Kii is empty. Keeping loyalty to a decent level is the main issue, with regards to conquering that area !

Troop movements :
- Lord Imagawa isn’t in Shinano, but his clan holds Etchu. There goes Mori’s emissary.
- 120 yari samurai from Kawachi are assigned to the protection of Yamashiro.
- Samurai from Sanuki fake another attack on Awaji.
- Finally, Lord Mori tries to solve the rebels issue by invading the Tamba province, assisted by 70 archers from Kawachi and the 100 Ashigarus from Tajima.

Buildings :
- With Kawachi conquered, the superior farmland queued in Sanuki can be cancelled. It would be finished too late to benefit from it next year.
- Instead, we require the construction of an improved farmland in Kawachi.
- A castle in Harima also is started.



End of the season. Cheers !

[TWD]

That would be the end of it, I'm afraid. I can't seem to manoeuver 120 men units on the battlefield (maybe I should systematically rearrange their number of ranks to make them deeper ?).
The position above is quite delicate, due to lightning fast expansion, inland rebels and loyalty troubles. It could be ok since I can outmanoeuver the rebels on the strategic map, but I have kept on either suffering unnecessary losses, or plainly losing crucial battles (I tried several times, ... even outnumbering 240 Ashigarus in Awaji with my 240 YS and 70 Archers from Sanuki, attacking from above, etc. I lost. Just now.)

Need some practice before showcasing a strategy with different settings. The irony being I completed the Owari-Mino-Echizen-Kaga line by summer 1535 with 60 men units.


@Jeff : I don't think this strategy can fit for the 1580 campaign :
Takeda is absent in the west and he is essential to act as a buffer. In 1580, Mori is certain to be attacked from the west.

[ReluctantSamurai]

First of all, a nice, though very delicate (by which I mean on the knife-edge) start! Having a plan and setting everything to work towards it is so important in campaigning. As Mori, I've taken to spamming out a few shinobi once I've taken Tajima with the bonus to help with rebellions. I prefer a quiet interior

You also use a similar wait-and-see for Kawachi that I use as 1580 Oda....let others bleed on the rebels before stepping in and snatching it.

It'll be interesting to see how Takeda and Shimazu react to each other......I'm laying money that Shimazu takes him out.

[gollum]

Welcome to the org and the sword dojo TWD

Nice Mori camp you have there. I usually blitz the Takeda all at once in turn one and take it from there. The safest route is then, after conquering kawachi/tamba/wakasa that give a strong and small/easily defensible frontier to go for the lucrative lands in Kyushu (Hizen/Chikuzen), and after that complete the Kyushu conquest before heading northeast.

The other way is to blitz all the way to Owari, avoiding Yamashiro initialy and taking it only afterwards. Then you can iether head northeast or southwest depending on what theothers are doing.

When you blitz, put taxes all the way to lowest, and depend on raiding and capturing new land. Build few buildings and produce many troops while building up your generals at the same time and depend on their rank for honor bonuses.

[TWD]

Thank you, ReluctantSamurai :)
I'm glad to hear this strategy isn't new to you !

I've tested this opening many times and, indeed, the diplomacy is very entertaining. All scenarios happen : Takeda-Shimazu alliance/war ; Imagawa-Shimazu alliance/war. I have never had Takeda and Imagawa to make contact to the west, though. What I regret the most when Mori wipes Takeda out in the first two seasons is precisely the lack of diplomacy (I hope my OP explained how a dynamic diplo can make the game easier).
The other fun thing I find here is the strategy split between east and west (army on a side, shinobis on the other). Shimazu 1530 (not SJ) is another campaign that can play the same, troops being produced in Tosa and Shinobis in ... in ... their starting castle. I can't remember the name of the province :)

As for your (soft) advice : in the opening shown, yes, I could have waited for reinforcements before invading Kawachi & Yamashiro. But rushing is what makes a rush a rush, right ?! The inexpected bad news was that I didn't pillage kokus from Yamashiro, since it wasn't garrisoned, I guess.
120 men units makes reinforcements slower and the loyalty harder to manage. I was mentally prepared for it but couldn't handle it in practice + the increased difficulty to manoeuver larger units on the battlefied.


Eeeek ! Now I want to restart it just all the more !

[TWD]

@Gollum : thank you as well.

True about the taxes, altough... I'd rather get income from my farms if I can. Here, I should definitely have lowered them.

From my experience, conquering Owari without holding Yamashiro and Ise is very troublesome... I'd say the point about conquering central Japan is to get a large income. Provinces like Kii, Yamato, Mino, etc. pay for themselves and the losses you suffered conquering them very fast.
On the other hand, I've never relied mostly on pillage to secure my income. I value farms very highly.

[A Nerd]

Your campaign was entertaining! Too bad you finished. Perhaps you can do another? Though I did wonder why you didn't produce any shinobi to help prevent rebellion. As Mori, after taking out Takeda, I usually go west and take the Imagawa and Shimazu holdings, perhaps ronin island too, before trekking east. I don't like to fight on two fronts if I can help it. Well with Oda, I guess that's impossible. Even as Imagawa I pull out of the east and concentrate on the west and move eastward from there. But I usally only play SJ. Still, keep the campaigns coming!

[gollum]

hello TWD,
there are two polar opposite approaches: turtling and blitzing, with many in-betweens.

At the most extreme, turtling consists of trading expansion for improving the overall income by investing in farm-improvements/mines/trade and better troops. Territories during turtling are taxed to the max, usually keeping enough forces for effective defence against neighbours. The idea is to gain an advantage either by improving total income and increasing the cash flow margin, or by getting better troops in order to have a battle advantage or both. The disadvantages are that during turtling opponents are given time to either tech upand invest themselves or to conquer their neighbours - so essentially you give time for the chance to get better cash flow, better total income and bette troops. The advantage sought in qualitative.

In blitzing the exact opposite happnes: you trade quality for time. You seek to take from your opponents their valuable land quickly so they can't develop. The advantage sought here is quantitative; the blitzer seeks to have a constant flow of troops produced and aims to feed off the land of his opponents. By setting tax to minimum you gain a population happiness bonus that ensures you can avoid rebellions and move quickly from newly conquered provinces even if you lightly garisson them. The blitzer does not care to maximise the profits fom his new lands, the fact that they are taken from his enemy is enough of an advantage.